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Many of us like to think we are still young at heart. A youthful
spirit suggests a certain freshness, an unselfconscious exuberance.
But there is a darker side of youth which we often lose sight of
amidst the anxieties of adulthood. Growing up is actually, by
definition, about coming to terms with a confusing, frightening and
alien world.

John Kirby has spent his artistic career stripping away the
defences behind which adults have learned to hide. His paintings
describe, allegorically, the suffering of people squeezed into the
straightjackets of religious, sexual and social norms. His haunting
paintings, peopled by hybrid child-adults and transgendered,
doll-like figures, point out the flaws in our rose-tinted view of
childhood - and suggest that the child inside us may not be such a
carefree spirit after all.

John Kirby was born in Liverpool in 1949. He trained at Central St
Martin and the Royal College of Art in London. He has exhibited
extensively in Europe and the United States in Solo and Group Shows
and his paintings are included in several prestigious Public and
Private Collections.